Art History Bow Blouse

A long time ago, I used to be a film extra. On one such production (I want to say the Sybil remake with Jessica Lang?), we were supposed to be university students, all in 1950’s period costume. In an effort to kill time between shots, several of the girls and I guessed what our names and majors would have been based on the vintage outfits we were wearing. I decided I would have been Kit, who was studying Art History. She would have been feminine, but with an independent streak and cussed a lot, mostly just for attention. For some reason, this bow-blouse really reminds me of that costume. The combination of the polka-dots and the pussy-bow gives this shirt a throwback retro feel.

I was inspired to make it from the one in the fashion image above, but I wanted a lower neck-line. I used my old stand-by, McCalls 5929, but added a long, draped bow that was patterned after an old tank top. I just took out the seam on that one and traced it on my fabric – worked like a charm! The McCalls pattern already has a Y- front shape to the neckline, so it was easy to incorporate this feature. I also made the shirt about 3 inches longer, so that I could belt it up for a different shape than my previous incarnations of this pattern (One, Two). The fabric is a cotton-rayon blend.

Thank you so much to my fabulous photographer Denis Duquette! What a peach!

Very cute blouse! I’m actually working on a similar top (without the button down) with the Sorbetto as a base, and I was wondering how to draft the bow. Would you be able to provide a quick sketch of the shape? Is it mostly a long rectangle increasing and slanted at the ends? How long did you make it?